Can a person in a wheelchair hope to go to a costume party and lead a normal life? Part of Loving Healing Press’s “Growing with Love” series, this inventive take-off on the old familiar fairy tale has Cinderella, who lives in a Kingdom far, far away, in a wheelchair. The wicked stepmother and stepsisters are there. The King is ill and wants to see his only son married, so there’s going to be a costume party for the Prince to meet all interested women. Of course, the stepsisters are going. The stepmother agrees that Cinderella can go if she manages to create some stunning jewelry for the other girls. So Cinderella helps her stepsisters get ready, and she makes herself a nice, new costume. However, when it’s time to go, the stepsisters claw at Cinderella’s costume, and the stepmother even punctures Cinderella’s wheelchair tire. Will Monique, the student fairy godmother from Enchantment University, be able to do anything for Cinderella? And what will happen to all of Cinderella’s hopes and dreams?

Dedicated to “any child who’s faced an illness, accident or injury,” Cinderella’s Magical Wheelchair lets young people with various disabilities know that they can overcome abuse, use their own abilities to build a new future for themselves, and find love that goes beyond mere physical attraction. Author Jewel Kats, who also wrote Reena’s Bollywood Dream, a sensitive book about sexual abuse by a relative, knows whereof she speaks. At the age of nine, she endured a car accident which altered her physical abilities forever. After weeks in the hospital and eight leg surgeries, she currently walks with a cane, which is fashionably handpainted, but nothing stops her. Like Jewel, this Cinderella learns to work hard at making her own “they lived happily ever after” ending to the story. Illustrator Richa Kinra’s eye-catching painted work is primarily in water colors, acrylics, and oils, but sometimes incorporates colored pencil, dry colors, pen and ink, or collage. This is a cute and heart-warming tale that will appeal to everyone, especially children with disabilities who now have a Cinderella with whom they can relate.